BLICQUY
Belgium.
A vicus of the civitas
Nerviorum which grew up at the point where the road
going N from Bavai forks, the right fork proceeding to
Velzeke and Ganda (Ghent), the left to Oudenburg. A
great many scattered finds have been made there over
the years, among them an arm belonging to a bronze
statue that must have been ca. 1 m high, and a bronze
statuette of Mars. More systematic digging has been done
since 1953. In the vicus itself a rectangular structure was
found, with a hypocaust; also a cellar, its walls made
of large blocks of stone from a nearby quarry and its
mud floor covered with a layer of sand that showed
traces of many amphorae; and a storage pit simply hollowed out of the clayey soil. The main excavations concern the necropolis and the industrial quarter. The necropolis lies W of the ancient street, between the site
of the vicus and the modern village of Aubechies. About
100 tombs had been cleared by amateurs before systematic excavations were started in 1960. About 400
more tombs were investigated, but a good part of the
necropolis still remains to be studied. All the tombs
are cremation tombs, ranging from the middle of the
1st c. A.D. to the first half of the 3d c., but they vary
in structure—some are of local stone or tile, some are
lined with wood, some are simple pits. The grave gifts
are all very rich, each tomb averaging a dozen pottery
vases (mainly local ware) as well as very fine glassware, quantities of fibulas (a good many of enamel and
tinned bronze), bronze mirrors, beads of glass and clay
belonging to necklaces and diadems, small boxes of
bone, bronze bracelets, and, very occasionally, strigils
and weapons. Some of the tombs probably were surmounted by funerary monuments decorated with reliefs
but only small fragments of these remain.
Between this necropolis and the Bavai road, also to
the S of the vicus, was an industrial quarter. Three potter's kilns have been found there, along with their rubbish pits, but some 20 more have been located by proton
magnetometer. Recently a shaft-furnace belonging to a
forge or ironworks was uncovered in the same area.
The potter's kilns were in use between ca. A.D. 50 and
150. A little farther S, underneath the Romanesque
church of Aubechies, was a large bath building; it was
separated from the vicus by the necropolis and the industrial quarter. A hexagonal nymphaeum has been
excavated there, also two rooms (tepidaria?) over a
hypocaust. The fact that the Dendre spring is close by
and that the baths are located at some distance from the
vicus suggests that the baths had a religious purpose. In
the 19th c. a bronze statuette of a pantheic god was
found near this site. Lastly, it has long been known
that there were several substructures at the spot called
Ville d'Anderlecht, about 1 km E of the necropolis. A
well has been uncovered and restored there, and quite
recently a bronze-founder's furnace, trapezoidal in design; also a wooden trough where bronze objects were
stored ready for recasting, among them statuettes of
Mars and Mercury, handles of chests, phallic amulets,
rings, and harness ornaments.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
R. De Maeyer,
De overblijfselen der
Romeinsche Villa's in België (1940) 47; S. J. De Laet
& P. Moison, “Une statuette de divinité panthée découverte à Aubechies,”
La Nouvelle Clio 4 (1953) 1-4; De Laet & H. Thoen “Etudes sur la céramique de la néropole gallo-romaine de Blicquy,”
Helinium 4 (1964) 193-218; 6 (1966) 3-25; 8 (1968) 3-21; 9 (1969) 28-38.
De Laet et al.,
La nécropole gallo-romaine de Blicquy
(1972)=
Dissertationes Archaeologicae Gandenses XIV. S. J. DE LAET
